Cement Mixer Makes Good Feed Blender

Cement Mixer Makes Good Feed Blender LIVESTOCK Feeding Equipment 3-5-20 Here's a practical shopping tip from an Iowa hog farmer that could save you nearly $1,500. Bob Coulter raises feeder pigs which need to have various drugs mixed in their feed. This can create a mixing problem because of the small amounts of material that need to be spread uniformly through a large batch of feed. There are commercial premixers on the market, but they cost about $1,800. Coulter thought he could do better than that, so he bought a conventional cement mixer for $250. Using a 10-1b. bag of drugs or medicines for a large batch of feed, he first mixes it with 50 lbs. of protein supplement in the cement mixer before dumping it into his commercially-made electric Mix Mill grinder-mixer. "Within 30 seconds you can see the drugs streaked through the protein, and in a minute and a half the whole mass is a uniform color," says Coulter. "Then I dump it by the bucketful into the main batch for mixing." Coulter made no alterations on the mixer except a wooden lid that keeps the dust in. He runs it at the same speed as it was originally geared up for. He's satisfied that it does a good job of mixing micro amounts of additives into big feed batches. Recently he has been using the mixer for giving his pigs TGE medicine in the feed. He combines the medicine with powdered milk, water, and ground corn. The same cement mixer he uses for feed can be put into service for cement work whenever needed. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Robert Coulter, Route 1, Conrad, Iowa 50621 (ph. 515 366-2240).

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